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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Shooting at the Walls of Heartache

Shooting at the Walls of Heartache

by @heymistermix.com|  May 6, 20206:00 pm| 191 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Bang, bang from Trump:

Asked Wednesday if the nation needs to accept greater loss of life, Trump said “hopefully it won’t be the case, but it may very well be the case.”

“We have to be warriors,” he said from his seat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. “We can’t keep our country closed down for years.”

First, am I the only one who is sick and tired about hearing about the “Resolute desk”? Apparently it is venerated by a set of White House reporter-wankers who were on the receiving end of nuggies and swirlies during high school, because it sounds so fucking butch.

Second, related to David and John’s posts below, two things:

  1. Most of the country ain’t seen nothing yet. Maybe they won’t, who knows, but if they pack into the Legion Hall Friday night without masks, they’ll probably meet the Grim Reaper sooner rather than later.
  2. The olds know the score. The old Fox News Republicans I know are all hunkering down and not planning on going out. Yeah, they might talk some smack when a pollster calls on their landline, but they’re not going anywhere, and if they must go somewhere, they’ll wear a mask, no matter which of their constitutional rights are violated.

I think there’s probably nothing that will keep the Fox News olds from voting absentee for Trump, but if there is, it might possibly be Trump’s manic insistence that they become combatants in a war to hide his gross incompetence.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need another cocktail. Open thread.

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Previous Post: « Semi-Respite Open Thread: The Solace of Science
Next Post: Open Thread: Pandemic Stories »

Reader Interactions

191Comments

  1. 1.

    Nicole

    May 6, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    Well, at least the title of this post gave me a replacement ear worm for “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole.”  For that, I am grateful.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 6:03 pm

    “We have to be warriors,”

    I would love to, but I have bone spurs.

  3. 3.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    May 6, 2020 at 6:04 pm

    Biggest tragedy – the media had to cancel Nerd Prom.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    May 6, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    @Nicole: You know, I bet your mom taught you to share, but now you’ve shared your terrible ear worm with the rest of us!  :-)

  5. 5.

    JPL

    May 6, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    trump needs to lead by example.

  6. 6.

    WaterGirl

    May 6, 2020 at 6:06 pm

    @Baud: They weren’t scared off by your COVID toes?  I always thought bone spurs were the stuff of cowards.

    Speaking of which, how are your toes?  When they get better, does that mean the virus is gone, or just farther along.  (further?)

  7. 7.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    May 6, 2020 at 6:07 pm

    “Warriors”?  Fuck that shitstain.  Fuck that fucking guy with a fucking blowtorch.  The guy sure is profligate with other people’s lives.

    I’m not a guy who’s generally given to fantasies of revenge, but God damn it, do I want to see this homunculus to suffer–and his worthless, deadbeat entourage with him.

  8. 8.

    Nicole

    May 6, 2020 at 6:08 pm

    @WaterGirl: Ha!  We howled and howled at the cover versions.  Sometimes, I truly bless the Internet.

  9. 9.

    Barbara

    May 6, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    He is beyond worst president ever.  He is a sociopath.  I swear, he wants people to die because it gives him a sense of power over life and death.

  10. 10.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 6:09 pm

    but I need another cocktail

    Cocktails For Two?

    Performed in the key of H.

    :)

  11. 11.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    I am better. I assume the virus (if I had it) is gone. It’s been well over a month now.

  12. 12.

    hells littlest angel

    May 6, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    First, am I the only one who is sick and tired about hearing about the “Resolute desk”?

     

    No, you are not. That and the “bully pulpit.” Get some new furniture, for fuck’s sake.

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    May 6, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    And this is all happening because

    • trumpov is a fucking moron AND was/is too lazy to engage with the complex issues the pandemic presents
    • Randian nut-job-ism, which has swallowed the Republican party, prohibits even contemplating using the powers and resources of the government to solve (or at least mitigate) the pandemic
    • Fox News
    • all the folks who quit the trumpov administration, but couldn’t bring themselves to sound the alarm (unless there was a book deal involved, of course)
    • the GOP let him slide on impeachment when he was obviously guilty…I mean, the next Lincoln Project ad should be about how “EVEN PENCE WOULDN’T HAVE EFFED UP THIS BADLY, AND LOOK HOW HE HANDLED HIV IN HIS OWN STATE…TRUMPOV IS THAT. BAD.”
  14. 14.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    Boy, you’re really cranky, going after the Resolute desk.

  15. 15.

    jonas

    May 6, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need another cocktail.

    Done, and done!

  16. 16.

    Mart

    May 6, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    Last week a former neighbor came by with boyfriend to pick up her power washer I placed on driveway. Called to say they would be early as the party they were at was busted up by the cops. Wife opened door to say high and they start marching towards us with beers in hand saying let’s have a couple beers together. I ran and slam door. Start hollering at wife. Couple leaves pissed at me. Fuck ’em. Of course they listen/watch Limbaugh/Fox all day. Trump is their man. Boyfriend is a chain smoker with COPD. Good luck brother. I ain’t coming to your funeral either.

  17. 17.

    Yutsano

    May 6, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    I think there’s probably nothing that will keep the Fox News olds from voting absentee for Trump, but if there is, it might possibly be Trump’s manic insistence that they become combatants in a war to hide his gross incompetence.

    Look at his poll numbers in Florida. Turns out the olds aren’t all that eager to be pushed out onto the ice floes. Who knew old Republicans weren’t interested in shared sacrifice when it’s their butts on the block?

  18. 18.

    Ryan

    May 6, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    What’s this closed down for years shit?  Isn’t a vaccine going to be available by the end of the year?  That’s what you told us yesterday.

  19. 19.

    WaterGirl

    May 6, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    @Baud: I am assuming you had it, and that you got a false negative on your test.  When testing gets better, I’ll trust the results more.  Until then, it’s lyin’ eyes 1, tests 0.

    Signed,

    Dr. WaterGirl

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    May 6, 2020 at 6:13 pm

    @Barbara: His enablers and apologists stand ready to dismiss all these upcoming hundreds of thousands of dead folks as “people with other conditions”, “old people”, “necessary sacrifices so that their grandchildren aren’t impoverished”, etc etc.

    As if there were no other choices, earlier on or even now.

  21. 21.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    @opiejeanne

    Has anyone checked that Dolt 45 hasn’t had it spray painted gold?

    “Now it’s classy.”

    //

  22. 22.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    @NotMax: Whoa! Her pitch is unhinged!

    I prefer this:

    https://youtu.be/lvt4b_qwC_Q

  23. 23.

    JoyceH

    May 6, 2020 at 6:15 pm

    ” That and the “bully pulpit.””

    Could someone PLEASE explain to Trump that in TR’s era, ‘bully’ was slang for great, like we’d now say ‘awesome’ or something similar? If Teddy had been president in the ’60s, he would have called the presidency a ‘groovy megaphone’.

    In other words, the ‘bully pulpit’ doesn’t mean the president is supposed to be a bully every time he speaks in public.

  24. 24.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 6:16 pm

    FUQ the orange buffoon.

    Alright I’m bout to watch the Michelle Obama “Becoming” documentary on Netflix!!

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    @Yutsano:

    Look at his poll numbers in Florida. Turns out the olds aren’t all that eager to be pushed out onto the ice floes.

    I’m given to understand that in Florida, due to the difficulty of obtaining ice floes, the olds are fed to the alligators.

  26. 26.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:18 pm

    @NotMax: Huh. Come to think of it, when was the last time we saw it? Boy, that would raise some hackles.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    @JoyceH:

    I thought the bully pulpit was a magical device that gives Democratic presidents anything they wanted if only they would try.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 6:19 pm

    ‘Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.’

  29. 29.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    @dmsilev: Was it you who was considering making some of the recipes on WaPo’s Voracious blog? Those whole wheat English muffins are pretty good, but really heavy.

  30. 30.

    ThresherK

    May 6, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    @NotMax: Knowing you, I’m guessing that’s the Spike Jones version. It is, after all, definitive.

  31. 31.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 6:20 pm

    @Baud: You’re confusing it with a Green Lantern ring. Easy mistake to make.

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 6, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    Most of the country ain’t seen nothing yet. Maybe they won’t, who knows, but if they pack into the Legion Hall Friday night without masks, they’ll probably meet the Grim Reaper sooner rather than later.

    Conformation bias means they won’t realize it. They will think “Oh, only a 100 died in my state today, that’s nothing , the libertards in New York City were losing 1,000 day” and understand percentage of the population means the lose of the life is the same. When the national death rate gets to like 3,000 a day because the virus is out of control in 30 states they will blame the Others.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    @opiejeanne: I’ve made a few of their recipes (and am planning on making their spicy Chicken Parm for dinner tomorrow), but I’ve never baked English muffins, from there or from anywhere.

  34. 34.

    Luciamia

    May 6, 2020 at 6:24 pm

    Another glass of Vouvrey, pour moi.  Christ, what a week and its only Wednesday.   It is Wednesday isn’t it?

  35. 35.

    ThresherK

    May 6, 2020 at 6:24 pm

    @opiejeanne: Okay,I guessed wrong on NotMax and Spike Jones, but I knew the assembled jackals would get there soon.

  36. 36.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 6:28 pm

    POTUS just said the administration WON'T modify its position in the Obamacare lawsuit, per reporters in the Oval. Attorney General Barr made a last minute push to get them to change it Monday, but was unsuccessful. Deadline to change it is today.https://t.co/Aas71TEh6m— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 6, 2020

  37. 37.

    Evap

    May 6, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    I’ve been having a glass of wine every night, but now I want a cocktail!  Not much in the way of cocktail ingredients in the house, sadly.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 6:30 pm

    @opiejeanne

    On purpose. She (professional singer Jo Stafford) and her husband (musician and conductor Paul Weston) put out a number of comedy records which grew from things they would do for laughs at parties, he playing as if he had two right hands (as on the album cover in the video) and she doing, well, what you heard. It takes a skilled artist to be that consistently off key and maintain it.

    Love his version of Dizzy Fingers, from which one can imagine the pianist thinking “Oh, thank goodness that’s over.”

  39. 39.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    Herbert Hoover’s Vice-President was Native-American???

    His name was Charles Curtis. He was Kaw. He was born on the Kaw Reservation and spoke English as a second language, his first being Kaw. His great great grandfather Chief White Plume made treaties in the White House a century before Curtis was one heartbeat away from living there https://t.co/RujbuGVkgT— Brett Chapman (@brettachapman) May 6, 2020

  40. 40.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:32 pm

    @ThresherK: No, it was some recording with a wonderful pianist and a lady with pitch control  problems doing the singing. I didn’t finish it.

  41. 41.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 6, 2020 at 6:33 pm

    @WaterGirl: Baud was relieved that his Rona test came back negative, just like the STD test.

  42. 42.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:34 pm

    @dmsilev: I made the shortbread, and it’s very nice but gives me instant heartburn. My husband is just going to have to finish eating the batch.

  43. 43.

    VOR

    May 6, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: I’m really scared of the partisan divide on this issue. That CNBC poll showing Democrats are taking COVID seriously while Rs are ready to cough in each other’s mouths. This is going to get ugly and a lot of people are going to die unnecessarily. And once it starts happening the Rs are going to look for scapegoats and it will be the people showing insufficient fealty to the great orange leader.

  44. 44.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    I love seeing Craig and Michelle’s sibiling relationship. #BecomingNetflix

  45. 45.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:36 pm

    @ThresherK: I will confess to being disappointed when it wasn’t Spike’s recording.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    May 6, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    @NotMax:

    He’s carved “Ivanka ?” in it with his pen knife.

  47. 47.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 6, 2020 at 6:38 pm

    @NotMax: This Jo Stafford?

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    @NotMax: I knew before I even clicked that it was Jonathan and Darlene. First encountered them as a freshman in high school. Those albums still delight me, 65 years later.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    May 6, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    Yep, most of my Trumpster olds are hunkered down. Except my dad. Can’t tell him anything. ?

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    May 6, 2020 at 6:40 pm

    @Evap:

    I’ve been having a glass of wine every night

    Hmmmm, Is that the limit?!

  51. 51.

    Immanentize

    May 6, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: His Vietnam, he said.

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    May 6, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    @opiejeanne: How can shortbread give one heartburn?  It’s like 50% butter?

  53. 53.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    @NotMax: That was Jo Stafford!! ??  *Palm to forehead* I totally forgot the names she and her husband used for these recordings, but I did wonder about the cover photo for the album.

    I remember hearing some of these recordings when I was in college, nearly 50 years ago. Our music teachers had a love of the comical and purposefully odd.

    PDQ Bach was already a big deal in that department, and during those years I went to at least 2 of Peter Schickele’s concerts. At the Dorothy Chandler they gave us glasses of champagne and Peter climbed down a rope from the balcony, ran to the stage, right after the stage manager announced that they didn’t know where he was and were searching the local bars. I can’t think of where a bar was back then near the Dorothy Chandler.

  54. 54.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 6:43 pm

    To recap:- Most of the covid bailout money went to people Trump favored.- Kushner massively bungled the PPE response- S Korea got the virus on the same day & had only 255 deaths TOTAL- 70,000 Americans are dead, 2,000 more dying EVERY DAY because Trump is a fucking moron.— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) May 6, 2020

  55. 55.

    Pharniel

    May 6, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    These past few years have made me miss being able to drink. So. Much.

  56. 56.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 6:44 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You.so.wrong.

    ?????

  57. 57.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 6:45 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    just like the STD test.

    I never said that came back negative.

  58. 58.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 6:46 pm

    @Immanentize: Heh. That could be the reason. Also, a little bit of sugar. God, the stuff is good but deadly to me.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 6:48 pm

    "At least three African Americans carrying large rifles" escorted MI State Rep. Sarah Anthony into the State Capitol, a week after armed white men swarmed the building:https://t.co/RxTna1XhoM pic.twitter.com/nRECIIKzV4— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 6, 2020

  60. 60.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 6:50 pm

    @rikyrah:

    So Michigan will be reforming its gun laws tomorrow then.

  61. 61.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 6, 2020 at 6:50 pm

    @rikyrah:

    @Baud: I sit corrected.

  62. 62.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 6, 2020 at 6:51 pm

    @Baud: If California is the guide, yes.

  63. 63.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 6:52 pm

    Always love to hear Michelle’s story about her and Obama’s first meeting #BecomingNetflix

  64. 64.

    Lulymay

    May 6, 2020 at 6:53 pm

    @Evap: I always have the ingredients for a Gin & Tonic — if it was good enough for the good Queen Mum, it was good enough for me.  Other than that, always keep a 4 litre  box of good old red hooch!  (I live in Canada, we’re not allowed to have a whole 5 litre box – I think our politicians have decided we can’t handle it.) Silly boogers!

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 6:55 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    “The key of H” was the tell. :)

    That was appropriated and repurposed from dialogue spoken by Ethel Merman, playing herself, in an episode of That Girl (paraphrasing): “I’d love to stay but need a full night’s sleep in order to be able to hit a high H tomorrow.”

  66. 66.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    Gotta love a pro-lifer willing to sacrifice human lives for his own success. Who’d have thunk it, as they used to say.

  67. 67.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 6, 2020 at 6:56 pm

    @Lulymay: Me too.

  68. 68.

    trollhattan

    May 6, 2020 at 6:58 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    When I was a little kid, the folks dragged along to their friends’ home for something or other, they took pity on me and introduced me to Nichols and May. Listening to those records was life-changing, because the humor is vastly more clever and subtle than teevee sitcoms of the time. Also learned to look forward to our trips to that home. They were rare adults who treated kids like tiny equals. Thanks, Bradshaws.

  69. 69.

    trollhattan

    May 6, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    @Immanentize:

    Most wine bottles are glass, so…

  70. 70.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 7:01 pm

    Gawd…how stupid was the ENTIRE “fist bump” controversy. I still will NEVER forgive the MSM for that bullshit because it went from Faux News across the MSM. Oooh and I swear if I ever saw Juan Williams I still want to slap his azz! #BecomingNetflix

  71. 71.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 6, 2020 at 7:02 pm

    @trollhattan: Only if you get the high class stuff.

  72. 72.

    Brachiator

    May 6, 2020 at 7:03 pm

    I think there’s probably nothing that will keep the Fox News olds from voting absentee for Trump…

    What’s left of them, anyway.

    However, remember that it’s not just old folks. Most dumb ass white men and a good chunk of white men of most demographics vote Republican, and may still vote for Trump even after he has signed them up for his Economy Now! death cult.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2020 at 7:05 pm

    @Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):

    Me too.

  74. 74.

    MomSense

    May 6, 2020 at 7:06 pm

    I don’t think I can absorb much more of this.

  75. 75.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    @lamh36: In Hyde Park, there’s a small memorial plaque noting the location of their first kiss. Honestly, I always found that to be just a bit stalkerish/creepy.
    (53rd Street and Dorchester. Checking, it’s actually marked as a point of interest on both Google Maps and Apple Maps. Yeah, definitely kind of creepy)

  76. 76.

    cmorenc

    May 6, 2020 at 7:08 pm

    @Barbara:

    He is beyond worst president ever.  He is a sociopath.  I swear, he wants people to die because it gives him a sense of power over life and death.

    IMHO callous indifference is the more likely explanation – which tends to be a corollary trait of sociopaths.  It’s not that he enjoys the death of other people, in fact they’re a rather inconvenient annoyance to his goal of bullshitting his way through to holding onto power in the upcoming election.

     

    He’s still a monster – a deliberate bent for genocide is not an essential trait to qualify as a monster; callous indifference and casual nonlethal cruelty to others is enough of itself, even though some monsters do have a bent for genocide (Serbia’s Milosevic would be an example).

  77. 77.

    Sm*t Cl*de

    May 6, 2020 at 7:09 pm

    “We have to be warriors,” he said from his seat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office

    Meanwhile the War on the Invisible Enemy ended with a strategy of abject unconditional surrender and evacuation by helicopter from the roof of the embassy.

  78. 78.

    cain

    May 6, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    They will blame mexican immigrants cuz they are dirty and stuff for spreading the virus everywhere and will demand that they put into concentration camps until this is over.

  79. 79.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    @MomSense:

    I have been unable to look at any Trump news since March 13. When it seeps into my consciousness I do a nose dive.

    But I just taught my last Zoom class for the semester, so I’m trying to be happy.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    This was the first day DeWine did not hold a press conference. I’d almost bet Trump or Pence bullied him into skipping it.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 7:12 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Most of what I see of Trump is on Colbert, so it’s been fun, actually.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    May 6, 2020 at 7:13 pm

    @dmsilev:

    ‘Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.’

    Oh my god, that’s perfect.

  83. 83.

    JPL

    May 6, 2020 at 7:14 pm

    @opiejeanne: The chicken recipes are all pretty good on Voraciously.    NYTimes recipes are often better, but I’m not willing to pay more for them.

  84. 84.

    WaterGirl

    May 6, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Ha!

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @Immanentize

    As Mr. Peavey ws fond of saying, “Mmm, could be.”

    ;)

  86. 86.

    bluehill

    May 6, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    Israel’s Supreme Court clears Netanyahu to form government despite corruption charges
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-politics-netanyahu-idUSKBN22I35R

    Looks like BiBi survived again. He’s a fighter, I’ll give him that. I realize Israel’s system of government is different, but makes me worried about what could happen here. Repubs have been focused on packing the courts and I’m guessing this is one reason why. Wisconsin seems like a preview for what could happen here if dems don’t keep the house and take the senate and presidency this November.

  87. 87.

    Brachiator

    May 6, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @Yutsano:

    Look at his poll numbers in Florida. Turns out the olds aren’t all that eager to be pushed out onto the ice floes. Who knew old Republicans weren’t interested in shared sacrifice when it’s their butts on the block?

    Funny thing about Florida. Older people with fat retirement accounts must be feeling a bit nervous. Not exactly a great place to retire anymore.

    One day after reopening, Florida posted a record number of new deaths Tuesday from the novel coronavirus — 113, including 11 in the Tampa Bay region. Part of the surge appears to be from the state adding the deaths of 41 people who aren’t considered Florida residents, a Tampa Bay Times analysis shows….

    Two Hillsborough County long-term care facilities are dealing with major outbreaks of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, that had infected a total of 141 people as of Tuesday. County officials and staff at the two homes, the Community Convalescent Center in Plant City and Bristol at Tampa Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, are saying little about the outbreaks.

    In related news, Freedom Square of Seminole, a Pinellas long-term care center with one of the deadliest COVID-19 outbreaks in the state, has reported its 20th death.

    To be fair, a lot of Florida mayors appear to be doing what they can to deal with the impact of re-opening the state.

    And there are a lot of military retirees in Florida. Tele-medicine is now a big thing.

    Members of the local military community have quickly adapted to meeting with their mental health counselors over Zoom video calls. Local clinics, as well as those with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, saw use of their remote mental health services boom in March and April.

    But one of the biggest regional businesses, Disney is not opening up even though the lockdown ate up 90 percent of their business.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 7:15 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hiKuxfcSrEU

  89. 89.

    boatboy_srq

    May 6, 2020 at 7:16 pm

    If we’re going to use Scandal tunes to discribe this pResidency, this is the one I would choose:

    https://youtu.be/_50-gOeBilc

  90. 90.

    boatboy_srq

    May 6, 2020 at 7:17 pm

    @dmsilev: Pythons are taking over. Invasive species donchano.

  91. 91.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    @WaterGirl: It’s either that or go somewhat older school and quote General what’s-his-name from Dr. Strangelove talking about getting our hair mussed; ten or twenty million dead, tops!

  92. 92.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 7:18 pm

    Love her interactions with Secret Service and esp Agent Allen. #BecomingNetflix

     

    Can you imagine the pressure of being the Black man in charge of keeping the first Black President and his family safe and away from harm. Of course ANY secret service agent feels pressure…but mahn that seems like a whole ‘nother level of pressure

  93. 93.

    boatboy_srq

    May 6, 2020 at 7:20 pm

    @Brachiator: Funny thing about Florida. Older people with fat retirement accounts must be feeling a bit nervous. Not exactly a great place to retire anymore.

    Florida has for some time been a great place to warehouse the olds so they can be abused, pillaged, and rapidly and efficiently disposed of. This despite one’s best efforts to the contrary.

    Ask me some other time how I know.

  94. 94.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 7:20 pm

    @boatboy_srq: Do you think the gators gather among themselves and rail about illegal reptilian immigrants?

  95. 95.

    mad citizen

    May 6, 2020 at 7:21 pm

    Re: Resolute Desk.  No Mr. Mix, you are not the only one tired of hearing about the Resolute Desk.  I saw a copy of of it up close at the Clinton library in February.  Google tells me it’s been used by Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, W, Obama, trump.  I don’t care at all about its past, its history, whatever.  It is now tainted beyond redemption.  I want it to be doused in ‘Merican gasoline on January 22, 2021, and burned the hell up on the White House lawn.

    I definitely don’t want it used ever again by any President.  Biden needs to use whatever the opposite of the Resolute Desk is.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    May 6, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    @Baud: I did not remember that was from Shrek.  Obviously

    But it’s still the perfect summary of Trump’s position.

  97. 97.

    Nora

    May 6, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    @dmsilev:  That would be Buck Turgidson, and I’ve been thinking of him a lot recently. “Mr. President, I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks. “

  98. 98.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    @debbie: 
    Me too.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    May 6, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    @rikyrah:

    Yep, just saw that on Twitter. Evil fckers. ?

    But of course the Bros who “only care about policy” will vote Trump or Green because they don’t actually give a damn about any policy that doesn’t put white men in charge.

  100. 100.

    Ohio Mom

    May 6, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    Debbie @80: Maybe DeWine was avoiding having to talk about the big cutbacks he’s making, in spite of the fact there is enough in the Rainy Day Fund to tide the state over. I think there is going to be a bit of blowback.

  101. 101.

    Nora

    May 6, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    It almost goes without saying, but “Resolute Desk” shrieks overkill.  If you were really resolute, you wouldn’t go so far as to call a desk resolute.

  102. 102.

    Croaker

    May 6, 2020 at 7:27 pm

    @mad citizen: 100%

  103. 103.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    @Baud:

    “I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed…”

  104. 104.

    catclub

    May 6, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    @dmsilev: ‘Some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make.’

     

    let me go find the demotivator poster

  105. 105.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 7:30 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Now, that ticks me off, that rainy day fund. He should use it NOW and use it for Medicaid. He’s losing more cred than he realizes with these cuts.

  106. 106.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    @Nora

    Named for the naval vessel. Desk was crafted from timbers of the exploration ship HMS Resolute and presented to President Rutherford Hayes as a gift from Queen Victoria.

    Total of three desks (of varying size) were commissioned by Vicky to be made from the Resolute’s salvaged wood.

  107. 107.

    catclub

    May 6, 2020 at 7:32 pm

    @boatboy_srq: Pythons are taking over. Invasive species donchano.

     

    Don’t worry, the anacondas will outcompete the pythons.

  108. 108.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 7:33 pm

    “When you are the President of the United States, words matter. You can start wars, you can crash economies, there is too much power to be that careless…” – Michelle Obama #BecomingNetflix!!!

  109. 109.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 7:33 pm

    @catclub:

    I like their social isolation t-shirt.

  110. 110.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 7:34 pm

    @NotMax:

    I like the desk, and I like its provenance even more. Not the desk’s fault a jackass is sitting behind it.

  111. 111.

    BobS

    May 6, 2020 at 7:36 pm

    @rikyrah: More Michigan:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs6jJ7dmWHs

  112. 112.

    FlyingToaster

    May 6, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker: My mom (a former Democratic precinct captain) has been locked down since March 7th, down southa you (Ft Myers area).  Her imbecile neighbors keep throwing parties.  I’ll be checking in with her tomorrow or Friday to see if any of them are in the hospital yet.

  113. 113.

    mad citizen

    May 6, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    @NotMax: I know you may not be advocating for the Resolute, but I’m warming to the idea of burning it.  (Yes I know it will never happen…)

    As Springsteen wrote, “Everything dies baby, that’s a fact”  Take the desk to Atlantic City to where the Trump casino was/is, and drop it from the roof.    I’ll bet Letterman would even take part.  Make it a netflix special.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    May 6, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    @boatboy_srq:

    Florida has for some time been a great place to warehouse the olds so they can be abused, pillaged, and rapidly and efficiently disposed of. This despite one’s best efforts to the contrary.

    Ask me some other time how I know.

    Yikes!

    But now it’s also, “Mom, dad. We’re going to park you at this nice nursing home. And then we have to go talk to our  estate attorney.  Where’s that copy of your will?”

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 6, 2020 at 7:38 pm

    @Immanentize: No one has said anything about the size of the glass.

  116. 116.

    lamh36

    May 6, 2020 at 7:39 pm

    Alright, I was good until the older Black ladies in th church. Then Sasha and Malia speaking…

    #BecomingNetlix https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/406efa1a970dd12d358a3ddbc59b8ac715d78dcfe6e10422a314c2eec18c304c.gif

  117. 117.

    NotMax

    May 6, 2020 at 7:40 pm

    @catclub

    How’d you like to see this sidling up behind you in your rear view mirror?

    The Dutch Military Vehicles (DMV) Anaconda is a new armoured vehicle designed and built by Deba Bedrijfswagens (Deba Trucks), a military vehicle manufacturer based in the Netherlands. Source

    ;)

  118. 118.

    Nora

    May 6, 2020 at 7:41 pm

    @NotMax: Thanks, I didn’t know that.  I just think using that name — with Trump — is definitely overkill.

  119. 119.

    Brachiator

    May 6, 2020 at 7:50 pm

    Asked Wednesday if the nation needs to accept greater loss of life, Trump said “hopefully it won’t be the case, but it may very well be the case.”

    “We have to be warriors,” he said from his seat behind the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. “We can’t keep our country closed down for years.”

    I have to admit that I did not think he would be so brazen and open about it, but Trump knows his base. He began his presidency with appeals to bigotry, promising that he would protect the “right people” from murderous rampaging Mexicans.

    Now he don’t give a fuck about the people. Let them drink bleach. Hey, look at the stock market.

    Trump capitulated to the Invisible Enemy, and his dopey supporters are busy raising a toast to their own demise.

  120. 120.

    Bill Arnold

    May 6, 2020 at 7:52 pm

    “We have to be warriors,”

    Warriors don’t randomly shoot civilians like The Unmasked deliberately do, like the people who willfully ignore pandemic-related health guidelines do.
    At least not without worrying about being tried and punished for war crimes.
    And yeah, viruses are somewhat like to (self-replicating) bullets, though bio-weapons are banned.

  121. 121.

    Drdavechemist

    May 6, 2020 at 7:53 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Slightly OT, but in an earlier thread you referred to R.I. congress rep Cicilline as “my neighbor.” Since I literally have run into him at my neighborhood pharmacy, I’m wondering how literally you meant that? (But don’t dox yourself if you choose not to.)

    I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how good he is as a member of Congress, since he was an OK but not spectacular mayor of Providence. Apparently being an executive and being a legislator aren’t the same skill set. Who knew?

  122. 122.

    dmsilev

    May 6, 2020 at 7:53 pm

    @Nora:

    It almost goes without saying, but “Resolute Desk” shrieks overkill.  If you were really resolute, you wouldn’t go so far as to call a desk resolute.

    To be fair, it was made from the timbers of HMS Resolute, and the Royal Navy has a long long history of giving ships names that are basically variants on HMS BigDick.

    (and other naming schemes as well. My absolute favorite is HMS Zubian, which was a frankenship made by welding together what was left after HMS Zulu and HMS Nubian lost their aft and fore halves respectively)

  123. 123.

    Trapped Lurker

    May 6, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    @lamh36: protecting the first black president must have been a real pressure cooker. My elderly (white) and sick father’s last vote  was for Obama in 2008; he hoped but couldn’t believe Americans would really elect a black man. He lived through Jim Crow in the south but taught us to fight it. My older sister marched for integration in Oklahoma when I was about 11. She was arrested, & my parents were proud. The rest of the family in Oklahoma was appalled. Dad & I watched the 2008 returns together (we’d been in Maryland for years by then). He was amazed at the result. Shortly before his death on January 19, 2009 I remember him watching Obama and saying “my God,  they will shoot him!”      The secret service did keep him alive. I wish Dad could have seen it. I am grateful. One reality amazing president in my lifetime.

  124. 124.

    Yutsano

    May 6, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    @NotMax: BRB gonna show that to a Dutch friend of mine. Maybe see if he wants a new gig.

  125. 125.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 6, 2020 at 8:11 pm

    @Drdavechemist: I just meant neighbor in the district sense. Langevin is my Rep.

  126. 126.

    Keith P.

    May 6, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    Anyone else terrified how easily Trump encourages local leaders in Blue states to disobey state directives but actively support state directives in Red states?

  127. 127.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    May 6, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    As I reported to my wife tonight, we’re at the “collapsed FEMA tents after the storm, the bands are cancelled, catering contracts blown and ‘fuck it, we’ll go with it and be legends’” part of Fyrefest.

    Billy McFarland could have hardly done a worse job. Hell, he’d have been more honest and empathetic.

  128. 128.

    GeriUpNorth

    May 6, 2020 at 8:14 pm

    @lamh36: I watched the 2008 election with a friend who’s now in her 70s who remembered the assassinations of the 60s. When the Obamas came out on stage after the results were announced she went into a complete panic, because she was sure he would be shot on the spot.

  129. 129.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 8:16 pm

    @mad citizen: What options does he (Biden) have? Maybe he can use: Theodore Roosevelt desk (used by Nixon as his second desk. This is where the   the Watergate tapes were recorded); the Hoover desk (Hoover and FDR).

  130. 130.

    Drdavechemist

    May 6, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    @Gin & Tonic: Got it! So you’re on that (metaphorical) side of the tracks. Explains the foray into CT over the weekend. Greetings from the East Side.

  131. 131.

    smintheus

    May 6, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    Last day of classes today, finally. Uff. This evening I turn the damned app off for one last once, settle into a glass of Malbec, I look in to see what has been going on with the world all this time – and Trump is still in the White House! What the hell is wrong with this country? Nobody’s kicking Trump the curb, after all this death and mayhem?! Whose idea was it to keep him on? When was this decided?

  132. 132.

    Origuy

    May 6, 2020 at 8:17 pm

    There are six existing desks that have been used in the White House.

  133. 133.

    Elizabelle

    May 6, 2020 at 8:18 pm

    From further down in the LA Times article, and the obvious riposte:

    Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, said there’s no valor in sacrificing people’s lives to fight the pandemic.

    “People who are dying of this virus are not dying to protect the American way of life,” he said. “They’re dying because their government has had a completely ineffective response to this infectious disease.”

    If Americans are being considered warriors, Jha said, Trump is sending them onto the battlefield without the testing and contact tracing required for protection.

    “He has left Americans disarmed,” he said. “He’s not given the American people the tools they need to fight this virus.”

    Trump used the “warrior” lingo throughout his trip to Arizona on Tuesday, when he visited a factory producing protective masks for healthcare workers.

     

  134. 134.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    May 6, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    @Keith P.:

    They can try, but may find it hard to engage in that kind of authoritarian conduct. I’m almost an old, have seen a lot of the world, and have had some fantastic meals; but am still in decent enough physical condition to pull triggers and exact a little payback.

    Plus, unlike most of these MAGA candyasses, I’ve actually been shot at.

  135. 135.

    Elizabelle

    May 6, 2020 at 8:21 pm

    The LA Times article also has a quote from Giuliani.  To Fox Business.

    Giuliani was mayor during the Sept. 11 attacks [DID YOU KNOW THAT?], and he compared the virus to a slow-motion terrorist assault.

    “We still may get hit by some bombs, but it’s less dangerous than it was before,” he said.

  136. 136.

    mrmoshpotato

    May 6, 2020 at 8:23 pm

    Fuck Dump and the Death Cult Old Party but obligatory.

  137. 137.

    smintheus

    May 6, 2020 at 8:24 pm

    @Keith P.:  I was hoping that Roberts/Alito et alii would try to force Wolf’s hand on reopening/killing lots more people in PA; and that Wolf would ask Roberts how many Army divisions he has at the ready to enforce his personal will in a blue state.

  138. 138.

    mrmoshpotato

    May 6, 2020 at 8:25 pm

    @Elizabelle: List time!

    1. Fuck Ghouliani.
    2. He knows 9/11 wasn’t a bombing, right?
    3. Fuck Ghouliani.
  139. 139.

    Roger Moore

    May 6, 2020 at 8:27 pm

    @Anya:

    What options does he (Biden) have?

    He could always have somebody make him a brand new desk.  Maybe he could get one that’s designed for the 21st century rather than the 19th.

  140. 140.

    HumboldtBlue

    May 6, 2020 at 8:28 pm

    @dmsilev:

    I stumbled upon the Paisan a few months ago and watched him make spicy chicken parm yesterday.

    Royal Navy has a long long history of giving ships names that are basically variants on HMS BigDick.

    Well, there’s always the Flower Class, vicious flotillas of Buttercups and Lilcas, Asters and Bluebells.

  141. 141.

    Elizabelle

    May 6, 2020 at 8:31 pm

    @Origuy:   I hate to say it — gawd, the Resolute desk is ugly.  Had heard of it because JFK used it.  Jackie found it and had it restored, per your Wiki link.

    I like the simplicity of LBJ’s desk — he was the only one who used it.  The TR and Hoover/FDR desks do not look too ostentatious.

  142. 142.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 8:31 pm

    @Elizabelle:

    Giuliani was mayor during the Sept. 11 attacks [DID YOU KNOW THAT?], and he compared the virus to a slow-motion terrorist assault.

    Does that mean we’re going to invade gonorrhea?

  143. 143.

    mad citizen

    May 6, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    The Dems/Biden should order a new desk from the Offerman Wood Shop (or similar Amercian craftspeople) https://offermanwoodshop.com/.

  144. 144.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 8:32 pm

    Biden should buy an Ikea desk and live stream him and Obama assembling it.

  145. 145.

    Elizabelle

    May 6, 2020 at 8:33 pm

    @mad citizen:   And don’t get us started on fumigating Air Force One.

    Of all Trump’s perks, that one bothers me the most.  He is so unworthy of it. Fucker.

  146. 146.

    Elizabelle

    May 6, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @Baud:   I liked the “we” getting hit by some bombs.

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    May 6, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @Mart: Ah, man, why’d you harsh their mellow?  I’ll bet they had some killer bath salts that you could have smoked, also too.

    Was the COPD guy dragging his oxygen tank up to the door while he was chain smoking a stogie at the same time, by chance??

    :-/

    Seriously, hang in there!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    Just One More Canuck

    May 6, 2020 at 8:34 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Wouldn’t now be the very definition of a rainy day? What the hell is he waiting for?

  149. 149.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2020 at 8:35 pm

    @Baud:

    I love that idea!

    I enjoyed the tweet of him playing cards with Keegan-Michael Key.

  150. 150.

    Uncle Cosmo

    May 6, 2020 at 8:36 pm

    @JoyceH: In the age of Mango Mussolini, it’s the Dissolute Desk and the Bullshit Pulpit.

  151. 151.

    Citizen Alan

    May 6, 2020 at 8:39 pm

    @opiejeanne:

    Every time I hear about the Resolute Desk, I feel a pang of sadness because I am 100% convinced that when Biden sits down behind it in January, he’s gonna find out that Shitgibbon has carved his initials into it.

  152. 152.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 8:39 pm

    Can someone explain to me what makes Warren a progressive and Harris a moderate? Their progressive score when it comes to voting they have a statistically identical scores.

    What is this narrative that depicts Harris like she’s a conservative dem? Nothing makes me angry (in terms of dem political discourse) than the idea that progressive and black cannot be the same. It’s as though, Biden can either choose a progressive (Warren) or AA (Harris). Get the fuck out of here with that noise.

  153. 153.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    @Anya:

    It’s about political clics.

  154. 154.

    lumpkin

    May 6, 2020 at 8:41 pm

    Resolute desk reminds of the conference rooms at a company we did business where I used to work. They all had names like “Decisive” and “Courage” and dipshit names like that. Everyone who worked there was a dick too. Some of the people I worked with really sucked up to the dickhead guys and it made me feel ill.

  155. 155.

    Spanky

    May 6, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    @Roger Moore: That’s what I was thinking. A new desk for a new America.

  156. 156.

    zhena gogolia

    May 6, 2020 at 8:42 pm

    @Anya:

    I know

    She’s a cop! (Barf.)

  157. 157.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    May 6, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    @NotMax: Cocktails for Two Spike Jones style

  158. 158.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 8:44 pm

    @Roger Moore: Is it worth the headache though? It will be the bust of Winston Churchill. The media will wail about how he is insulting Kennedy and every other president after him. Not to mention the money it’ll cost.

  159. 159.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    @trollhattan: We should have a thread about comedy albums or routines that changed our world views, broadened our outlook. For me, Stan Freberg, Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Tom Lehrer, Anna Russell, Flanders & Swann, and Beyond the Fringe.

    Also, Beatrice Kay and early Danny Kaye.

  160. 160.

    Poe Larity

    May 6, 2020 at 8:47 pm

    The Olds used to hear stories about Uncle John or Aunt Beatrice who they never met – because Spanish Flu.

    So much weltschmerz.

  161. 161.

    sdhays

    May 6, 2020 at 8:48 pm

    @Anya: On the other hand, it would be pretty cool to have to “settle” for “moderate” VP Harris.

  162. 162.

    Bill Arnold

    May 6, 2020 at 8:50 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    just like the STD test.

    Wait, are “STD Toes” really a thing?

  163. 163.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 6, 2020 at 8:50 pm

    @Elizabelle: I, for one, am willing to have Rudy die to reinvigorate the economy.

  164. 164.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 8:50 pm

    @zhena gogolia: everyone who participated in that slander should be shunned forever. I am so petty whenever someone follows me on twitter I check their TL. For the political ones,  if it’s innocuous enough, I search their  twitter handle+Kamala cop.  Needless to say, I block them if they ever called Kamala Harris that. I am that irritated by it.

  165. 165.

    mad citizen

    May 6, 2020 at 8:51 pm

    @Anya: Naaw, these days one has the political party apparatus fund WH stuff like the desk, rug.  Obama’s rug was funded with inaugural money: https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2010/09/new_oval_office_rug_made_in_we.html

    Also just learned this about one of Obama’s favorite quotes–not MLK: • “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” — attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. but actually from abolitionist Theodore Parker (1810-1860)

  166. 166.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 8:51 pm

    @sdhays: As per Washington Post, Bernie didn’t endorse Warren as VP when Biden asked him, so…

  167. 167.

    Dan B

    May 6, 2020 at 8:51 pm

    @GeriUpNorth: I had the same reaction to the Obamas being on stage as your friend.  I was in my teens for the assasinations plus Jackson State and Kent State.  My brothers former girlfriend was at the shooting at Kent.  I was at or near so many awful things in that era – sorta Forrest Gump but from a little distance, with some notable exceptions: Chicago police riot, mafia contract, military shackling CO defendants and shipping them to Vietnam, etc.

  168. 168.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 8:52 pm

    @Anya:

    Who did he endorse?

  169. 169.

    Elizabelle

    May 6, 2020 at 8:53 pm

    @Gin & Tonic:   Yeah.  I’m good too.

  170. 170.

    Gin & Tonic

    May 6, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    @Bill Arnold: Is this a Balloon-Juice After Dark thread yet?

  171. 171.

    mad citizen

    May 6, 2020 at 8:54 pm

    @Citizen Alan: The VP desk is the TR desk and is signed by many of the VPs: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/313155-biden-leaves-his-mark-on-vp-desk

    (Remember 2017, when everyone was thinking Biden’s time was over?)

  172. 172.

    emrys

    May 6, 2020 at 8:57 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Firesign Theater

  173. 173.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    May 6, 2020 at 8:58 pm

    I have to admit, I have never understood the point in mentioning the desk. Even worse, for journalists, because if “don’t include pointless, confusing words in your story without need” isn’t a rule for journalism, it bloody well should be!

    The first question: does naming the desk advance the story? No? Then why waste print on the name of a desk that only a tiny number know (and, I reckon, tinier number *care*) about?

    That said, I’ll say that, if our nation is in any way healthy, by the end of the first Biden administration’s term, everyone in the nation will come to realize that using “Trump’s desk” would be tantamount to having a mash picture of Adolf Hitler on the desk as well. (Of course, if the nation is as sick as it sometimes seems, then journos would decide it’s okay, because it’s obviously a clever Photoshop of Putin, so that’s okay, then.)

    (Not sure of my slang here – “mash note” means (at the least) a “wanna-meet” note; I’m guessing “mash picture” would be the same, only, classy, you know, not a dick pic. A picture saying “I hope you’re thinking of me, because I’m thinking of you in *that* special way….)

  174. 174.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    @Baud:  No one. They only said he (Sanders) “declined to support Warren” “according to three people familiar with his conversation with Biden.” Make of that what you will but the way it’s worded makes me think the 3-sources are from Bernie’s side.

  175. 175.

    Dan B

    May 6, 2020 at 8:59 pm

    @Anya:  I’m with you.  Harris seems to be a pragmatic progressive and Warren an accomplished but a bit less pragmatic progressive.  Splitting hairs.

  176. 176.

    Baud

    May 6, 2020 at 9:01 pm

    @Anya:

    I prefer Warren in the Senate, but that’s going to make a lot of people here mad.

  177. 177.

    tokyokie

    May 6, 2020 at 9:04 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    Every time I hear about the Resolute Desk, I feel a pang of sadness because I am 100% convinced that when Biden sits down behind it in January, he’s gonna find out that Shitgibbon has carved his initials into it.

    You’re assuming that he can spell his initials. Besides, doing so would require some actual physical labor, an activity in which he has never engaged in his life.

  178. 178.

    Another Scott

    May 6, 2020 at 9:11 pm

    @LongHairedWeirdo: I assume they mention the name of the desk the way stories about Japan would often mention the Chrysanthemum Throne. To give it cultural or historical or Mandate of Heaven-ish heft.

    It’s lazy, IMO.

    Donnie gets to sit there because the Electoral College put him there and the US Congress wasn’t willing to fight over it. Not because the gods shined their fortune upon him, or something.

    Grr…

    tl;dr – it’s a constitutional office that gives him power – not the desk.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  179. 179.

    tokyokie

    May 6, 2020 at 9:14 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I learned Monty Python routines from their albums before I saw the skits on TV. And Matching Tie and Handkerchief — the only album with three side ones and no side two — was pretty much material they never did on the show.

     

    I was a bit late on Firesign Theater. I learned the routines from friends before I finally heard the albums.

  180. 180.

    FlyingToaster

    May 6, 2020 at 9:15 pm

    @Baud:

    I prefer Warren in the Senate, but that’s going to make a lot of people here mad.

    As one of her constituents, so do I.  Though I seriously want her to replace Schumer as Senate party Leader, because honest to dog, I find him worthless.

  181. 181.

    tokyokie

    May 6, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    @LongHairedWeirdo:

    I have to admit, I have never understood the point in mentioning the desk. Even worse, for journalists, because if “don’t include pointless, confusing words in your story without need” isn’t a rule for journalism, it bloody well should be!

    Alas, although it’s terrible writing, no newspapers have functional copy desks any longer to clean up that sort of crap.

  182. 182.

    Anya

    May 6, 2020 at 9:26 pm

    @Baud: So do I.

     

    @FlyingToaster: I agree with you. I think Warren would be a more effective leader. She’ll definitely be a better communicator. Also, too,  it’s about time we drag the senate out of the old boys club.

  183. 183.

    J R in WV

    May 6, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    @Nora:

    May 6, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    It almost goes without saying, but “Resolute Desk” shrieks overkill.  If you were really resolute, you wouldn’t go so far as to call a desk resolute.

    OK, I’m too lazy after a Gin & Tonic followed by a bottle of wine with dinner to look it up, but I think the name of that desk is from a British ship of exploration who’s timbers were used to make the desk.

    Wikipedia reports: “It was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the English oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute.”

  184. 184.

    J R in WV

    May 6, 2020 at 10:00 pm

    @J R in WV:

    Obviously, I did look it up…!

  185. 185.

    MCA1

    May 6, 2020 at 10:21 pm

    Does he really think “We can’t keep the country closed down for years” is a winner?  Seems to me the majority of the American public’s response to that at this point is “No shit, Sherlock.  We shouldn’t have even had to keep the country closed down for 2 months – look at Germany and New Zealand,  – and we’re still nowhere near ready to properly test and trace to reopen.  What the fuck have you been doing with the time we bought you, by dutifully staying in our homes these last 7 weeks, to fix the mess you created by diddling for 2 months on the front end?”  We are one of the small handful of nations to completely fuck this up, and it’s becoming more and more clear to the voting public.  We were too late to pick a strategy and start because of Dotard, and now we’re giving up on the strategy we chose (at least the red hats are) because of Dotard.  Everybody outside the Fox bubble can see how almost every other country on the planet, even Italy, has shown a more functional national governmental response than us.

  186. 186.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 10:51 pm

    @Nora:

    Nothing to see.

  187. 187.

    Other MJS

    May 6, 2020 at 11:16 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: For years after I discovered PDQ Bach, I kept learning things that made me understand what some of the jokes meant. My favorite was discovering that Padre Martini was a real person.

  188. 188.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 11:27 pm

    @Citizen Alan: I wouldn’t be surprised, and that really pains me. I have wondered about him ordering the mural room wallpapered over, or worse. I’m surprised he hasn’t taken his Sharpie to certain portraits in the White House; hopefully they’re under glass.

    I wonder what horrors will be found in the residence when Trump finally leaves office.

  189. 189.

    opiejeanne

    May 6, 2020 at 11:32 pm

    @mad citizen: That’s kind of wonderful.

  190. 190.

    Uncle Cosmo

    May 7, 2020 at 8:07 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: Add Allen Sherman to that list. I know he stole all the music (unlike Tom Lehrer, whose metronome he couldn’t carry) but this Italian-American kid found the lyrics clever. Even if I didn’t understand some of them till much later in life. (“Members of Hadassah” – who TF was that??)

    Do not make a stingy sandwich;
    Pile the cold cuts high!
    Customers should see salami
    Comin’ through the rye!

  191. 191.

    Uncle Cosmo

    May 7, 2020 at 8:12 am

    @Gin & Tonic: I, for one, am willing to have Rudy die to reinvigorate the economy.

     

    Oh, the virus outside is frightful,
    But a Blue Wave would be so delightful –
    And if Ghouliani’s ready to go,
    Make it so! Make it so! Make it so!

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